It was great meeting Andy Borowitz, David Rees, and Scott Dikkers this week. The event was fun and well-received. The Awearness blog has a couple of quick posts here and here.

It’s another article about blogs being turned into books. Of course, FREEwilliamsburg wasn’t a blog when I secured my book deal but I’m happy to get another shout out. The print edition included a very earnest looking picture of me. You can read the article here. And here’s a jpg: View image

From the article “Why Blog? Reason No. 92: Book Deal“

But there are successes. On the nonhumor front, the best seller “Julie and Julia,” about a woman who cooked one Julia Child recipe a day, started as a blog, and “The Hipster Handbook,” spawned from freewilliamsburg.com in 2003, has sold 39,000, according to Nielsen BookScan.

The article is largely about the hilarious blog Stuff White People Like. Ironically, I mentioned this blog to my agent early in February knowing it would translate well to print. Looks like another agent beat him to it.
Incidentally, The Hipster Handbook has sold many more copies than reported by BookScan which often doesn’t account for sales at independent and college book stores, the places where the satirical book has sold very well.

Next month, I’ll be travelling to lovely Minneapolis to do a reading from The Sinner’s Guide to the Evangelical Right. I’m looking forward to meeting Richard Dawkins who will be the main event of the conference. Here’s the scoop:

AMERICAN ATHEISTS returns to historic Minneapolis, MN
for our 34th National Conference!
March 21-23, 2008
Join us for a weekend of workshops, panels, talks by noted speakers and other activities. Minneapolis is also one of the premier tourism destinations in this part of the nation, so you’ll want to consider making your Conference visit an extended weekend. More information here.

And then in April, I’ll be part of a panel discussing “humor in journalism” at The New Yorker Conference. Details to follow (once I get them).